An exclusive interview with Linh Dinh, writer and author
Major media outlets are mocking the Occupy Wall Street movement, seeking to distract and confuse public opinion as the anti-capitalist pitch grows louder, an analyst says.
Press TV has interviewed with Linh Dinh, writer and author from Philadelphia, to further discuss the issue.
The video also offers the opinions of Don DeBar, an additional guest.
What follows is a transcript of the interview.
Press TV: The majority of economic analysts and experts speaking about America agree that there was financial greed, there was a financial fraud involved that led to the financial crisis. Now these protesters are showing their anger, saying that the banks and corporations, the ones who created the crisis, are the ones getting funds and not them. Will this protest movement eventually force the government to admit that point, and to appoint a different economic policy? Or is that asking too much?
Dinh: So far there’s been a lack of clarity about what the protesters really want the government to do.
About two weeks ago, they did put out an announcement that they will have a national convention next year in which they would put out a list of demands, and then wait one year for the government to meet these demands. And if they don’t, if the government doesn’t respond, they would put out a party that would run for elections. They would put out candidates that would run for elections in 2014, and then presumably in 2016.
But this proposal has not been followed up, you know. It sounds like a much needed idea, that they would put out a third party to challenge the Republicans and the Democrats. But for some reason this declaration has not been followed up. So, I’m not sure whether they will follow through with this idea.
But anyway, the media has not been very helpful in educating the public about what these protesters are really after. And of course, the media are not here to educate, they are here to confuse and to distract. So there’s been too much emphasis on the protesters themselves, as far as the sanitation issues, the sexual assaults and etc. etc.
These problems with any kind of public outdoors encampment are to be expected. And so far, these incidents have been very few. The sanitation, the assaults, the violence, these incidents have been very few.
But these are the problems ordinary homeless people face anyway, you know. So the protesters are only symbolically homeless, but whereas regular homeless people are often assaulted.
And of course, if you are sleeping outside, you’re not going to be clean. Using the bathroom is going to be a big issue, etc. etc.
And so I think it’s profound that so many Americans all over the country are willing to live so poorly, so squalidly, to make a point. So, instead of applauding the sacrifice that they are doing every day, you know, the media are treating them as if this is some kind of a game, as if this is a joke. You know it is not fun to sleep outside in the cold, in the snow.
Anyway, they don’t have all the time in the world. So, at some point I think they would have to limit the main points and clarify exactly what they are after.
Press TV: Do you agree that nothing can change for the better until the entire economic system is completely dismantled?
Dinh: Well, I think there is no consensus among the protesters, and that’s what I am trying to get at. Some of them are against capitalism and some of them are not. We don’t know what percentage of them is against capitalism.
It is a structural problem. I definitely agree that it’s a structural problem. And some of them are talking about the Federal Reserve as this generator of money. That the power to generate money in the United States is in the hands of private banks, and that’s a main problem. I don’t think you can solve much until you address that.
But then again, not all of the protesters agree with that assessment either. We don’t know how radical these people are, eventually. I think some of them are fairly radical in that they want a complete overhaul of the system, and some of them are fairly conservative in that they just want some people to be prosecuted within the laws that already exist.
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